So, Nintendo at the VGX.

There's been quite a bit of discussion about this, and while there are some who seem content with the announcement regarding DKC:TF, there seem to be as many, if not more, who are disappointed. Already, we're hearing calls that Nintendo is out of touch, that they don't get it, that they have no idea what they're doing.

I disagree. I think they know exactly what they're doing: conditioning.

For those that don't know, positivie reinforcement is the act of providing a reward for an action to encourage that action. For instance teaching a dog to do tricks by giving it treats. Or, for instance, announcing an announcement to your fans, letting those fans speculate, discuss, and generally hype themselves up, and then throwing them a treat in the form of an exciting reveal.

This isn't all that ideal, however. If too much time passes between repetitions, or the reward stops coming after the action, the tactic can lose its effectiveness. Hence what's known as intermittent reinforcement, or periodically giving the reward only sometimes; one of the best examples of this is a slot machine, which only periodically gives a reward, which entices the user to keep putting money in. This buys the best of both worlds because not only is it more efficient (more actions for less reward), but it also is more sustainable, since it conditions the subject to more easily accept dry spells.

And that, I think, is what Nintendo might be doing here. They are either sitting on their best announcements or working on putting them together, and they're purposely teasing their audience with announcements, turning even small, relatively mundane announcements into events abuzz with speculation.

And it works. The latest announcement at VGX wouldn't have gotten 1/10th of the attention if so many people hadn't been anticipating something else. Nintendo wasn't trying to surprise people with the announcement, because they knew that it was going to disappoint people but just wanted to get as much mileage out of it as they could.

So for the people getting frustrated with what they think of as Nintendo's cluelessness, it might be that's just what they want you to think.

Or Nintendo noticed how horrible of a show the VGX's are and decided not to show off anything important.

If that was really the case, they either wouldn't have shown up at all, or they would have actually pulled out one of their big guns. It wouldn't make much sense for them to straddle the line in this case.

Now THAT is an interesting theory. Part of what makes Nintendo so great compared to Sony and Microsoft (when it comes to reveals) is they do them on their own time and they keep a tight ship in terms of secrets. Sony's secrets are always spoiled shortly beforehand and MS doesn't have secrets to begin with lol but with Nintendo you could be minding your own business one day and all of a sudden BAM they release trailers for 8 unnannounced games all launching within 6 months from now.

Interesting, I thought they were doing to keep up with the theme of the show...

But in all seriousness, I think Nintendo might have been there not only cause of DK, but to these Metroid... I mean... when Reggie wears a Pin of Samus, it cannot go un-noticed

This is what happens when you think about the same thing for too long.

Or you're just giving them a bit too much credit. Remember that this is the company that created buzz around Project Cafe, and ended their E3 press conference with a bang... of Nintendoland fireworks. They also revealed their new console with the same name (plus a random letter) and didn't actually show the console. People thought it was just a controller. Some still do. Those weren't ploys, stunts, or 'means of psychological control'. This is a company that is making big mistakes and losing most of their home console market share. There is no reason to doubt that the big wigs of Nintendo thought that this was a legitimately good idea that would excite everyone for their product that's not selling.

Too much thinking (or denial) can lead to conspiracy theories.

Nintendo obviously knows exactly what they are doing, an organízed multi billion company knows what they are doing. The problem is they are doing the wrong things.

This is possible. They haven't exactly been awash in good ideas lately.

At the same time, though, their move towards Nintendo Directs and away from larger events, and the constant teasing in particular over the past year, is consistent with the idea.

Donkey kong trended for 6 hours. There came and got blood out of turnip.